The Chimera Vector tfc-1

by Nathan M. Farrugia

  ‘Get on board,’ Sophia said. ‘We’re cutting this fine.’

  ‘You said that part’s optional,’ Jay said.

  Sophia blinked. ‘I’m sorry?’

  Damien stepped forward. ‘Can you give us a minute?’

  ‘You have ten seconds.’ Sophia turned on her heel and stepped into the railcar.

  Inside, Benito turned to her. ‘That programming switch — Doctor Adamicz taught you how to do that?’

  ‘Yes,’ Sophia said.

  ‘OK, good. He taught you a great deal then.’

  ‘He risked a great deal too,’ she said, avoiding his gaze. ‘Before Denton killed him.’

  ‘Dear God.’ His gaze fell. ‘I’m sorry, no one told me—’

  ‘Before we leave, I need to remove your RFID as well,’ she told him. She gave Lucia her com, then pulled off her fingerless gloves. ‘Watch our perimeter.’

  * * *

  ‘Why don’t you want to go with them?’ Damien said, keeping his voice low so Sophia wouldn’t overhear them from the railcar.

  Jay folded his arms over his chest. ‘Because they can’t be trusted.’

  Damien blinked. ‘And Denton can?’

  Jay pulled his shoulders back, making his chest look bigger. ‘We’re safer with him.’

  ‘Until retirement age. Round to the back of the head.’

  Jay smiled and shook his head. ‘Take care of that when the time comes.’

  Damien exhaled through his nostrils. There was only one way to change Jay’s mind.

  ‘I’m going with them.’

  Jay grabbed Damien’s shoulder with one hand. ‘What? Are you out of your goddamn mind?’

  Damien paused, leaned in close. ‘For once, no. There may not be another chance.’

  Jay squeezed harder. In a soft growling voice, he said, ‘The only reason I’m coming is to make sure you don’t get yourself killed.’

  He could play Jay so easily, it was almost cheating. He boarded the railcar, Jay behind him.

  Sophia introduced them to her team. It seemed to Damien that Sophia was the only one comfortable working with them.

  Nasira, who looked half Afro-Caribbean, half English, shot them an unfriendly stare before disappearing into the driver’s cabin.

  Renée had gingery blonde hair tied back to reveal a smattering of freckles, and a guarded stare. Cassandra had darker skin than Jay; her hair was braided so tightly it made his brain hurt just looking at it. She didn’t bother acknowledging his presence.

  Lucia, who looked half European, half South East Asian, was the only member of the team who moved to shake his hand — until Jay stepped in the way.

  ‘Denton’s going to lock down the facility once it’s evacuated,’ Jay said, talking to Sophia. ‘If we don’t make it in time, how are you going to get past the blast doors?’

  Sophia licked her lips. ‘The virus Damien planted for me. I’m using it to trip a security trigger that should disable all power to the facility.’

  ‘Yeah, so?’ Jay shrugged. ‘Facility will switch to auxiliary power.’

  ‘Exactly,’ she said. ‘But there’s a glitch in the blast doors. When auxiliary power kicks in, the blast doors retract briefly. Provided we time it just right, that’s our window out of here.’

  Sophia kneeled before Benito, slapped on a pair of disposable latex gloves and ran the twin-edged blade of her Gerber knife under the flame of her Zippo lighter. Once it was sterilized, she felt for the RFID on Benito’s forearm with her thumb and forefinger. Benito saved her the time by locating it himself.

  Lucia crouched beside Sophia and wiped the area he’d indicated with an alcohol swab. Then Sophia used the tip of her sterilized blade to make a straight incision over the RFID.

  ‘Sophia,’ Lucia whispered, the alcohol swab in one hand, Sophia’s com in the other. ‘We have incoming.’

  Sophia placed her knife on the seat beside Montoya. ‘How many?’

  Lucia turned the com screen so Sophia could see. Sixteen dots shooting down the subway. Fast. At that speed, they’d be here in twenty seconds.

  Sophia yelled, ‘Nasira! Prepare to move!’

  ‘On it!’ Nasira called from the driver’s cabin.

  Sophia used her fingers to work the tiny RFID from underneath Benito’s skin. He breathed heavily, his teeth clenched. His forehead was pressed into three distinct creases. She found the RFID: a quarter of an inch in length, an eighth of an inch in width. It slipped from her grasp. Still under his skin. Her team couldn’t move yet. If the railcar was in motion, she wouldn’t have a hope at getting it out. And until she did, they’d be tracked every step of the way.

  ‘They’re almost on us,’ Lucia said.

  She shed her lab coat, revealing her para-aramid tactical vest. Nasira did the same, closely followed by Cassandra and Renée. They peered over the holographic sights of their P90s, their attention riveted to the platform entrance. Nasira was in the driver’s cabin, ready for Sophia’s order. Lucia dropped Sophia’s com onto a seat and picked up her own P90.

  Sophia tried for the RFID again, felt the metal between the latex of her gloves. She picked it out and held it. Glass exploded above her head. Lucia dived to the ground beside her. Benito bent over, hands over his head, eyes shut.

  ‘Go!’ Sophia yelled. ‘Go!’

  She pressed herself flat to the floor, the RFID between her forefinger and thumb. This was going to be close.

  The railcar’s electric motor hummed to life beneath her. Her arms were covered in glass fragments. She could see Blue Berets swarming the platform, only their helmets visible from her angle. They disappeared and she knew they were kneeling to take aim.

  Nasira hit the accelerator.

  Sophia heard the subsonic rounds smack through the metal and glass inside the railcar. Seconds later, they were out of range.

  She crawled onto one knee and pulled off her latex gloves. She turned them inside out and, with the RFID inside one glove, tied it off.

  ‘Everyone, talk to me!’ she said.

  Renée and Cassandra were first to report. They were fine. Jay chimed in after, followed by Damien. Benito was sitting as he had been before, one hand clamped over the incision on his arm. Glass fragments were caught in his short, curly hair like some sort of cake decoration.

  Sophia helped Lucia to her feet. ‘Injuries?’

  Lucia shook her head and got to work dressing Benito’s incision.

  Jay slapped Damien’s back, grinning. ‘Piece of cake.’

  Sophia moved towards one of the shattered windows and tossed the RFID out into the subway. After a quick search for her com, she found it on the floor near Benito. She looked up to see Lucia had finished bandaging his arm.

  ‘I’m sorry, Doctor, but it was necessary,’ Sophia said.

  ‘Right, well, I suppose it had to be done.’ He pushed his frameless glasses up the bridge of his nose. ‘And just call me Benito.’

  ‘It’s good to meet you — hold it!’ she yelled. Denton was smarter than this. ‘Stop the railcar!’

  The railcar drew to a quick halt. Jay shot her a demanding glare.

  Damien, his vest in one hand, looked confused. ‘Why are we stopping?’

  ‘Check your com maps,’ Sophia said.

  While they did that, she consulted her own com. Using the hijacked security system, she sent the encrypted photographs of the Chimera vector codes to Cecilia McLoughlin. But just before she hit the send button, she noticed something unusual. The encryption looked strange.

  Jay was beside her. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

  ‘I’m about to send the Chimera vector codes,’ she said.

  ‘So we’re done. What are we waiting for?’ Jay’s gaze switched from her to the others, as if daring anyone to disagree with him. ‘Let’s get the—’

  Sophia held a finger up, silencing him. She double-checked the connection settings on her com, even though in the helicopter she’d already triple-checked it. Infrared and Bluetooth were all disabled. But w
hen she checked this time, Bluetooth was enabled. Her mouth went dry.

  The only wireless frequency she’d left operational was the cellular frequency for voice calls. And that ran through the double-firewalled cryptorouter Cecilia had installed for her. She’d even hacked the international mobile equipment identification number normally used to track phones without batteries or SIM cards. Something was wrong.

  She checked the transfer log. The sender, identified as “DesBlueGene”, had used Bluetooth to force her com to accept a package. Alarm bells went off in her head. She checked the time of the transfer. The same time as when she’d decrypted the Chimera vector codes in the BlueGene lab. That wasn’t good.

  She checked her com’s file activity. The package had been very busy since then, silently unpacking itself and lying dormant for a few minutes. She scanned the transfer log, a chill working its way up her spine. The package was currently intercepting the encrypted photographs and wrapping something over them. Like a game of pass the parcel, only in reverse, each transfer packaging the last in a new layer of encryption.

  First things first.

  Sophia quickly sent the vector to an anonymous server so Cecilia could retrieve it, then called Cecilia right away. While she waited for the call, which was encrypted over internet protocol, to hop anonymously through half a dozen multi-jurisdictional nodes around the world, she tried desperately to think of what to say.

  The call connected, masked from eavesdroppers with white noise. ‘Yes,’ Cecilia said.

  ‘Some of the code has dual encryption,’ Sophia said.

  Silence.

  ‘I think Denton programmed a virus to switch on Bluetooth and use it to send a package to my com,’ Sophia said. ‘Some of the photos have been wrapped in a second layer of encryption. Encryption that’s not ours.’

  ‘Do not leave the facility,’ Cecilia said.

  Sophia swallowed. ‘What should I do?’

  ‘I had a look before you called. It seems Denton only wrapped the anti-psychopath vector with a second layer of encryption. The Axolotl vector is completely untouched. But this second layer over the anti-psychopath vector, it works like the first. Only catch is you need to decrypt both at the same time,’ she said. ‘OK. I just ran the encryption against Denton’s genome from the Fifth Column database. It’s his DNA. But with a twist.’

  ‘He made an encryption key out of a provirus as well?’ Sophia said. ‘Wait, that means I need you and him in order to decrypt the anti-psychopath vector.’

  ‘Exactly. And that’s precisely how he wants it,’ Cecilia said.

  ‘Does he have to be alive?’ Sophia asked.

  ‘It’s the same as your key. There’s a die-off effect.’

  ‘I’ll take that as a yes.’

  ‘The way the encryption is wrapped, you’ll need us in the same place at the same time.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Sophia said. ‘There’s no way we can pull this off. We need to abort.’

  ‘Listen to me, we can still do this. You’ll need to use the facility’s electronic countermeasures to block Denton’s communications. If his Blue Berets and shocktroopers are running blind and deaf, you can keep one step ahead of them. It’s the only way you can stay alive long enough for me to get there.’

  ‘You’re going to come here? Shit. You have to.’

  The rules had changed. The game had changed.

  ‘Don’t abort yet, Sophia. We still have a shot.’

  Sophia swallowed. ‘How long do you need?’

  ‘I’m in Puerto Rico, precisely as planned. So from here, I’ll need twenty minutes. Meet me at the BlueGene lab. The files you sent me are intact. Get rid of yours now.’

  The call disconnected. Sophia lowered the com from her ear.

  Her team was waiting for orders.

  Jay was waiting for answers.

  On her com, Sophia opened the folder that contained the encrypted photographs. Even if she was captured, they were untouchable without Cecilia’s DNA. It was safe to erase them, so she did it. Gutmann method: thirty-five sweeps of random overwrites, making the erased code virtually impossible to recover. Just to be sure.

  She exhaled slowly, then said, ‘We can’t leave yet.’

  ‘Hang on a fucking minute. We betrayed the Fifth Column to help you!’ Jay snapped. ‘If we stay, we’re toast.’

  She met his gaze. ‘We don’t have a choice.’

  ‘I do,’ Jay said. ‘We fulfilled our part of the agreement; we’re out of here. We want our money and childhood records now.’

  ‘And how are you going to leave without us?’

  ‘That’s our problem, not yours.’

  Sophia said, ‘Damien?’

  Damien frowned. ‘I’m afraid I’m with Jay on this one.’

  ‘Then I’m afraid I can’t give you the money now,’ Sophia said.

  ‘Oh really? And why’s that?’ Jay said. ‘So you can kill us and save yourselves the payment?’

  Nasira shrugged. ‘The thought crossed our minds.’

  ‘Cecilia McLoughlin has the money. And the records,’ Sophia said. ‘She’ll be here in twenty minutes. If you want them so desperately, ask her yourself. In the meantime, you stay with us. That’s not negotiable.’

  From the corner of her vision, she saw Damien shudder slightly. He stood perfectly still, as if suspended on a string, and his vest slipped from his grasp. He looked blank. Blood squirted from his chest. He opened his mouth to say something, but all she heard was a withering gasp. Not from his mouth but from his chest. He fell.

  Suppressed rounds tore through the front of the railcar. Sophia hit the floor. Everyone else did the same.

  She heard the whine of the railcar engine grow louder, then realized it wasn’t their engine. Fear shivered through her. She tried to ignore it. Pointing to the driver’s cabin, she yelled, ‘Override the batteries to full capacity! Get us out!’

  If they were going to have a chance at outrunning the Berets they’d need to retreat. Sophia just hoped she could get her team to a railcar platform — any platform — before the Berets reached firing range.

  Renée was the closest to the cabin. She crawled towards it. Moments later, the roar of their engine drowned out the pursuers’. Following Sophia’s directions, Renée juiced the lithium ion batteries and the hydrogen fuel cell, pushing their top speed from fifty miles per hour to a fraction over sixty. Sophia just hoped the Berets didn’t know how to pull the same trick.

  Something metallic skittered along the floor beside her. Flashbangs.

  Sophia closed her eyes and clamped her hands firmly over her ears. Even with her eyes shut, all color and shape dissolved into a sheet of hot white. It sounded like someone had lit firecrackers inside her ears. She couldn’t tell where the bang finished and the dull ringing began. Counting to five, she opened her eyes. The hot white faded. It looked as though everyone had frozen around her. Then they jolted ahead in time.

  The railcar was slowing down. The lithium ion batteries were dry. But the hydrogen was still going.

  ‘They’ve stopped firing,’ Benito said.

  ‘That’s because we’re out of range,’ Sophia said. ‘For now.’

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Jay dropped to his knees before Damien. Jay himself had taken a round in his left shoulder. It burned like hell, leaving his left arm dangling uselessly at his side. But the pain was nothing compared to watching Damien lie there with that fucked-up slurping noise coming from his chest. He couldn’t believe what was happening. Damien’s eyes were half-open, focused on him. Jay felt useless.

  Lucia was over Damien, her medical backpack open on the floor. ‘Sucking chest cavity,’ she yelled above the rush of air.

  Her hand was pressed firmly over the exit wound on the left side of Damien’s chest. The round must’ve ripped open the skin on Damien’s back and burned its way through his flesh, smashing open the veins and nerves. It had gone wide on his left side, missing his heart and perforating a lung.

  Jay couldn’t g
ive a fuck about the Blue Berets, the Chimera vector, any of that shit. Right now, he was going to do anything to make sure Damien survived.

  Lucia pointed to Damien’s chest. ‘Hand here, firm pressure.’

  As soon as she removed her hand, Jay took over. Damien exhaled. His eyes were closed now. Scarlet bubbles frothed over Jay’s knuckles. Jay swallowed, hard. His eyes tingled. He could feel tears coming. It only angered him more.

  Lucia pressed two fingers into the groove between the large muscle of Damien’s neck and the windpipe. ‘His pulse is too fast,’ she said.

  As soon as Damien opened his eyes, Jay yelled, ‘It’s OK, you’ll be fine!’

  Lucia removed Jay’s trembling hand and applied a sterile dressing to the wound. He watched her tape three sides, leaving the bottom open for drainage. He could almost visualize Damien’s heart pumping furiously to make the best of what blood was left in his body.

  Lucia reached for a plasma bladder and catheter from her backpack. Screw that. Jay beat her to it. He held the catheter between his teeth and ripped the bladder out of its packaging. Lucia let him do it, and stabbed Damien’s thigh with an auto-injector of morphine. Jay tore the caps off the bladder and jabbed the catheter into the bottle’s self-sealing neck. Lucia took the bottle from him.

  ‘Let me do it,’ he said.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Lucia said. ‘I have it under control.’

  She undid the screw clamp, allowing the liquid to run through the line and bulk out the blood in Damien’s veins.

  Jay felt tears splash his cheeks.

  ‘Thank you,’ Lucia said.

  Jay rocked back on his heels until he was slumped against the side of the railcar. His mouth twitched. He tried to keep a straight face, but his chin trembled. He ran his functional hand through his hair. He should never have let Damien get on the railcar.

  * * *

  Renée called out from the driver’s cabin. ‘Where to?’

  On her hands and knees, Sophia yelled back, ‘Keep going!’

  She checked her com. The Blue Berets were yellow dots on her screen. They’d dropped back. Her team was safe. For now.

  Jay shuffled towards her. He clamped his good hand over her com. ‘You need to get Damien to a hospital!’ he yelled over the noise. ‘Now!’